A three year old was mauled to death after falling into the african painted dogs exibit.We are members of the zoo and my wife has taken all three of our young children by herself during the week without a second thought. What a nightmare that poor family has to deal with.

This is horrible and my thoughts and prayers go out to their family, that is horrifying. But I'd really like to know exactly how this happened. It's not easy for a three year old to just "fall" into an exhibit like that, either the parent(s) were doing something wildly irresponsible and holding him out over a railing, or the kid was a great climber and they let him out of their sight long enough for him to climb his way into there.

I feel terrible for the mother, but this was a really terrible mistake on her part. The dogs didn't do anything "wrong", they did what was in their nature. African Wild Dogs are very efficient and "blood thirsty" hunters. The zoo will probably get sued for not having a higher fence, and perhaps rightfully so. Ultimately it's the zoo's responsibility to ensure that no one can fall into a cage. A 10 foot tall fence almost certainly would have prevented this.

Does not compute. The next round of wild beasts would do the same, if such a tragic situation arose again.

From what I read, sounds like the police shot the dog in an act to rescue the child. Doesn't say the dog was put down after the fact.

How dare they kill an animal to protect a small child.

I can't speak for anyone else but I think some of the articles read like they put the dogs down afterward (kind of how you read about a vicious dog in a neighborhood attack). Which is different than shooting them to save the child.

Hockeynut! wrote:I feel terrible for the mother, but this was a really terrible mistake on her part. The dogs didn't do anything "wrong", they did what was in their nature. African Wild Dogs are very efficient and "blood thirsty" hunters. The zoo will probably get sued for not having a higher fence, and perhaps rightfully so. Ultimately it's the zoo's responsibility to ensure that no one can fall into a cage. A 10 foot tall fence almost certainly would have prevented this.

What did the mother do that was a mistake? I only read the linked article, so I was wondering.